1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for feeding and stacking documents which may, for example, be used with particular advantage in mail handling systems for feeding and stacking envelopes.
At various steps in mail handling operations, individual pieces of mail are often collected and ordered in a stack. For example, after outgoing mail from a commercial or industrial business is sealed in envelopes that are imprinted or stamped with postage, the envelopes are collected in a stack to be deposited at an appropriate mail drop. Similarly, when the postage on the envelopes is cancelled at a post office, the envelopes are again stacked to be distributed according to their destination.
In moderate to large volume commercial, industrial, and postal mail handling applications, it is desirable to mechanize envelope stacking operations as a step toward achieving maximum efficiency.
There are, of course, many applications other than mail handling applications in which documents, such as simple paper sheets, are fed to and stacked at a collection station. The apparatus of the present invention may be adapted for these other applications also. Accordingly, as used in this specification and in the concluding claims, the term "document" is intended to mean, without limitation, any envelope, sheet, web, folder, or the like which is ordinarily thin, generally planar, and flexible.